This invention relates to the field of loading compressible, agricultural feed stock into expandable storage bags, and more specifically to an improved method and apparatus having an expanded loading area for easier input of feedstock to the bagger machine and retractable portions for easier transport of the machine.
Horizontally expandable, silage storage bags are commonly used as an alternative to permanent feed storage structures such as barns and silos. From an economic standpoint, an expandable plastic storage bag is preferable to a more elaborate, permanent structure. Further, the expandable bags are more easily loaded with feed than permanent structure and the silage stored therein is readily accessible for use, for example using a small tractor with a front bucket to unload the feed.
An exemplary prior art bagger is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,552 (which patent is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference), to Paul Wingert, the present applicant. A tractor-powered bag-loading apparatus is disclosed in association with an expandable bag. A backstop is located at the filled end of the bag and has attached thereto laterally spaced cables which extend forward to rotatable cable drums on the bagger machine. The drums are yieldably braked and, under a predetermined force applied to the cables, release the cable to allow movement of the bag-loading apparatus and tractor away from the filled end of the bag as it is filled. The bag is filled by a toothed rotor which propels silage through a tapered tunnel and into the bag inlet. The tapered tunnel described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,552 provides a smooth, more evenly filled bag.
The bag for use with such bagging machines is manufactured and delivered in a pleated shape, i.e., folded into an accordion-bellows-type shape. Typically, a bag having a nominal ten-foot-diameter (approximately 3 meters diameter, or 9.6 meters circumference) and a 300-foot length (approximately 90 meters length) will be folded to a 10-foot-diameter (about 3 meters) ring about one foot (about 0.3 meter) long and 1 foot (about 0.3 meter) thick. To start the loading operation, this bag-ring is pre-loaded around the tunnel, and the pleats are unfolded one at a time as the bag is deployed and filled with feed stock. Once any portion of the bag fills with feed, that portion becomes very heavy, and does not move. Thus the bagger machine itself is propelled along the ground in front of the bag being filled.
There are numerous problems that one contends with using previous bagging structures. The loading area is relatively small and that loading area moves as the bagger moves due to feed being forced into the bag. It is thus difficult to dump large quantities of feed at one time into the bagger, for example from a dump truck or large front-end loader.
Further, various parts of conventional bagger machines are oriented such that a very wide profile is presented as the bagger is transported. For example, the yieldably braked, rotatable cable drums holding the laterally spaced cables which extend back to the backstop and the end of the filling bag are typically placed at the ends of an axle that is long enough to space the cables at either side of a ten-foot or twelve-foot diameter bag. In rural farm regions, particularly remote or mountainous regions, that have narrow roads, it is problematic to move such a wide bagger from place to place. Further, shipping bagger machines overseas often involves packing the bagger into a standard container having predefined interior dimensions not suitable for wide and long machines.
What is needed is a apparatus and method for bagging agricultural feed that provides a large loading area for dumping input feed that is to be bagged, as well as having a narrow profile for transport and a wide profile for operation.
The present invention provides an improved agricultural feed stock loading apparatus that includes a feed tunnel. In various embodiments, the apparatus includes a multi-part tunnel system that can be removed from the bagger and/or adjusted in width and/or length for shipping and moving convenience, and to accommodate different-sized bags. Other embodiments include a foldable brake beam and shaft mechanism that facilitates shipping and road travel. Other embodiments include a feed wagon portion with a large buffer table as a unitary part of the bagger, facilitating depositing a large amount of feed onto the bagger, and freeing the loading machinery for other duties.
Other aspects of the invention include a bag lift having a post that is located along the tunnel midline of the bagger, transport wheels moved towards the center of mass of the combined wagon table and bagger extruder, a slidable conveyor system to move feed along the buffer table, and/or an automatically moving side elevator that remains in a fixed position as the bagger machine is moved and the bag filled. In some embodiments, variable-speed hydraulic motors are used to drive the chains moving various parts of the bagger machine relative to one another.
In some embodiments, the tunnel includes slidable portions that allow adjustment of the tunnel width for different sized bags.
One aspect of the present invention provides an improved method for loading agricultural feed into a horizontally deployed bag. This method includes providing an extruder rotor having an input hopper and an output tunnel, the input hopper having a capacity to hold feed, providing a buffer table having a capacity to hold feed that is larger than the capacity of the hopper, and deploying the bag from the forward end of the tunnel towards a rearward end of the tunnel. This method also includes unloading onto the buffer table an amount of feed that is greater than the capacity of the hopper, conveying the feed along the buffer table towards and into the hopper, compacting the feed with the extruder rotor, from the tunnel forward end, into the tunnel between the forward and rearward ends, and extruding the feed from the rearward end of the tunnel into the bag.
Another aspect of the present invention provides an agricultural feed stock loading apparatus for loading feed into a feed bag. This apparatus includes an extruder rotor having an input hopper and an output tunnel, the input hopper having a capacity to hold feed, a buffer table having a capacity to hold feed that is larger than the capacity of the hopper, the buffer table coupled to the input hopper, a bag holder that holds the bag to be deployed from the forward end of the tunnel towards a rearward end of the tunnel, and a mechanism that moves the feed along the buffer table towards and into the hopper.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides an improved feed tunnel for use with an agricultural feed stock loading apparatus for loading feed into a horizontal, ground-supported feed bag. This tunnel includes at least two parts that can be attached to one another in a first configuration suitable to fill a bag having a first diameter, and can be attached to one another in a second configuration suitable to fill a bag having a second diameter larger than the first diameter.